Department for Business and Trade

Department for Business and Trade: CK Hutchison Holdings

Apsana Begum: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department has had discussions with CK Hutchison Holdings in the last year.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Details of Ministers' and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK. Published declarations include the purpose of the meeting and the names of any additional external organisations or individuals in attendance.

Department for Business and Trade: Dahua Technology and Hikvision

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether their Department has purchased products manufactured by (a) Hikvision and (b) Dahua in the last three years.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: It is not government policy to comment on the security arrangements of government buildings, as has been the case under successive administrations. Specific details regarding the make and model of security systems are withheld on national security grounds.

Trade Agreements

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much the then Department for International Trade spent (a) negotiating and (b) implementing free trade agreements in financial year 2022-23.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The then Department for International Trade spent £46.2m in 2022-23 on the negotiation and implementation of Free Trade Agreements.This enabled the Government to ratify new trade deals with Australia and New Zealand, which could lead to a £10.4 billion and £1.7 billion long run increase in bilateral trade respectively, conclude negotiations with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and progress negotiations with India, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Canada, Mexico, Israel, and Switzerland.

Department for Business and Trade: Artificial Intelligence

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what (a) algorithmic and (b) other automated decision making systems her Department uses; and for what purposes.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The Department uses a range of tools to aid decision making, including services built by our staff and externally procured software and tools. These tools include use of what is commonly referred to as artificial intelligence to generate insight from large and complex data. However, all final decisions are made by humans, using the insight generated from these tools. Individuals are made aware of the limitations of these tools which only form part of the decision-making process.